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Showing posts from May, 2016

Cranbrook Academy of Art tour

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Cranbrook Academy was the brainchild of philanthropist (and newspaper man) George Booth . Sited on his property in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in the suburbs of Detroit the 319 acre lot has been filled over the years with an art academy, a boys school, a girls school, art laboratories, a world class science and history museum, as well as an art museum. Booth brought on renowned Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen to help him not only develop the campus architecturally but the mission of the multi-faceted academy with a seemingly endless budget. See my previous tour of Saarinen's house on campus HERE . Sculptures by Carl Milles dot the lush gardens and many water features. Milles had moved from Sweden in 1931 to be sculptor-in-residence at Cranbrook and remained until returning to Sweden in 1951. The campus came at an intriguing time in architectural history. It started as rather arts and crafts in the 1920s, played with Art Deco in the 30s, and the later buildings from the 40s and 5...

Saarinen House at Cranbrook Academy

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Last weekend I had the pleasure of visting Cranbrook Academy outside of Detroit. This renowned art school was partially the brain child of architect Eliel Saarinen, president of the school from 1930 until 1950. Design runs in the family: the architect's wife was artist and weaver Loja Saarinen (who also taught at the academy) and their son would become well known industrial designer Eero Saarinen ( of the ubiquitous tables and chairs).  It was rather a gloomy day unfortunately but the snapshots capture the circa 1930 house well (I'll blog more on the rest of Cranbrook Academy later this week).  Saarinen designed the president's house to fit within the compound and not stand out although great details abound: textured brick, leaded glass windows, etc.  Shall we go in?  The modern art deco interiors would have been unlike anything Detroit natives had seen in 1930 (perhaps with the exception of Frank Lloyd Wright's work).  Saarinen brought the stream-lined style s...